Spring Festival tourism revenue up 16.4 pct

BEIJING, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Tourism revenue in China rose 16.4 percent year on year during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, the National Tourism Administration said on Friday.

Tourism revenue reached 126.4 billion yuan (20.69 billion U.S. dollars) during the holiday, which began last Friday, according to a statement released by the administration.

The Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New Year, fell on Jan. 31 this year. It is the most important holiday in China for family reunion.

The number of tourists during the Spring Festival holiday topped 231 million across the country, up 14 percent from the same period last year, the statement said.

As many as 8.6 million people visited the country's 39 key tourism cities, which include Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Haikou.

Outbound group travel tourists reached 4.72 million, up 18.1 percent from the same period last year. Insiders estimated a similar number of tourists for self-guided foreign travel, putting outbound tourists this year at a total of around 9 million.